A spiritual meeting between Sts. Paisios and Porphyrios

 A spiritual meeting between Sts. Paisios and Porphyrios

Elder Porphyrios relates: Once on the Holy Mountain, I was traveling by tractor with Fr. Paisios. The two of us were saying the [Jesus] prayer mystically. Our souls were united. At a certain point, he got off and we continued. Oh, then you should have seen it! As he was leaving, he rushed towards me and embraced me noetically. You should have seen this unification of souls. You can love others spiritually, and embrace them and feel them, though they are still far away.

"It was a pleasure to see how Elders Paisios and Elder Porfyrios thought about each other.

One of the monks said to Elder Paisios: ‘I’d like to talk to you about something I’ve discussed with Elder Porfyrios’.

‘If you’ve talked to Elder Porfyrios, you don’t need to talk to me as well, because he’s a coloured satellite television and I’m only a black and white set’.

That was the humble view of the Elder.

On the other hand, Elder Porfyrios told us:

‘The Grace that Elder Paisios has is worth more than mine, because he’s acquired it through great efforts and ascetic sweat, whereas God gave me mine completely for free, when I was still very young, simply so that I could be of help to the other monks’.

Source: Athonite Hieromonk Christodoulos, «Σκεύος Εκλογής»